James Caan, Sherilyn Fenn add danger, spice to ‘Magic City’

Hey, ladies and gents, I’m covering the spring television season via the Television Critics Association tour on the West Coast. Hope you like my tidbits these next couple of weeks! — Jeanne

PASADENA, Calif. — James Caan, who shot to fame with his role as Sonny Corleone in “The Godfather,” will portray a gangster once again. . .this time on the small screen.

He’ll play the head of the Chicago mob, Sy Berman, in the second season of period drama “Magic City.” It will bow on Starz this spring.

His character, in fact, is the only man who actually strikes fear in the cold heart of Ben Diamond (Golden Globe nominee Danny Huston), the mobster known as “The Butcher” and easily one of the scariest guys ever brought to television.

Sy is Diamond’s boss, the man who initially saw the potential in the young con and encouraged his criminal talents, which, as we saw in Season One, are chillingly extensive.

The role also reunites Caan with another alumnus of “The Godfather,” Alex Rocco, who played Moe Greene in the 1972 film. In “Magic City,” Rocco plays Arthur Evans, the dad of Ike Evans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s lead character. Evans, of course, owns the Miramar Playa, the grand hotel of Miami in 1959.

In the second season, Evans, according to Morgan, is “down to wanting to rid himself of Ben Diamond (as well as Sy Berman). And because of his single focus, he pushes his family away a bit.”

Adding even more spice to the second season will be Sherilyn Fenn of “Twin Peaks” fame, who’ll play a former call girl who now runs a classy bordello in Miami that’s backed by Diamond.

The casting of Fenn also represents another reunion for creator Mitch Glazer, who co-wrote “Three of Hearts” that starred Fenn and “Magic City” regular Kelly Lynch as lesbian lovers. “I always thought Sherilyn had an iconic ‘50s look to her,” he said of his new cast member. “It’s a treat to work with her again.”